Doctors and Nurses Say More People Are Dying of Covid-19 in the US Than We Know - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/coronavirus-update-dead-covid19-doctors-hospitals <comment><USER2> Article summary:

\- No claims of intentional undercounting.

\- Some undercounting likely because testing is reserved for living patients where test results could affect how that patient is treated.

\- Some undercounting may be temporary because of lags in test-results / reporting / tallying.

<comment><USER3> Would this apply to pretty much all countries? Especially "testing is reserved for living patients"? A lot of countries are struggling to test enough living people.

<comment><USER4> Of course. If you're interested in detailed reporting, it gets fuzzy. False positives, false negatives, not testing, losing results.. Most stats aren't exact in many ways. This is NOT a US-specific phenomenon (healthcare is Excellent, when provided), and in some cases cause of death was NOT COVID-19 either, despite positive test. For deaths, it is a bit better, since most countries do keep tally in that area, but actual testing may vary wildly post mortem.

For the "waiting for evidence"-crowd (inaction), this is bad news. There's just no time when action is required NOW.

However, by buying time, we can ironically "wait for the evidence"!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> At least here in the states I have a hard time believing that we could have a significant spike in deaths that are missed entirely. But maybe it's possible that a death would be noticed and reported and handled through the proper channels, but that the count of the death itself would just get missed. And that we wouldn't notice until we compared deaths to population counts or something.

Here's another interesting way it could be masked. Perhaps flu deaths are decreasing substantially, but unnoticed covid deaths are being recorded as flu deaths to make up the gap - we wouldn't notice the spike because it would just be an absence of a dip. Maybe that wouldn't get noticed until our flu seasons in future years are weirdly muted.

<comment><USER6> I think the signal to look for is an increase in flu mortality rate in February-May compared to October-January if that kind of data exists. Confirmed flu cases are almost never also tested for COVID-19 due to the sheer number of flu cases, but even a small percentage of those being doubled up might change the mortality rate. They would also cause community spread because people don't take the same precautions for "just the flu".

<comment><USER7> both flu and covid kill the same kind of people, very old and frail ones. So in a sense they should be competitors, and they'll both kill fewer than if either disease were the only one.

<comment><USER6> Covid kills people who would survive the flu, so if someone catches both, they would have a higher chance of dying than from the flu alone, which would affect the flu's stats because these would be recorded as flu deaths.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The corollary is also true: more people are not dying of Covid-19 than we know.

<comment><USER9> True. And there are probably many more of them.

So altogether, inadequate testing underestimates incidence of infection, and overestimates risk of death from infection.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think it would be useful to compare the mortality rate of a region with the past years. Other than uncounted coronavirus death there are other emergencies that cannot be throated properly in some heavily affected areas and that increase the overall mortality rate.

</comment><comment><USER11> That would surprise me greatly. The one example is an ER doc who says there was 3 instead of 1 in a county? What is the implication here, complicit participation of all healthcare workers in a political scheme to undersell deaths while screaming for more resources? Incompetent testing? Poor reporting? We report every death to the medical examiner regardless, this would come up and be strictly tracked, even after the fact if the test results later. Would be nice to have evidence of a discrepancy to go off, otherwise I worry this just spreads fear.

<comment><USER12> Some of the confusion is that cases are reported in the county of _residence_ , not the county of the hospital where they are being treated. I've had to correct multiple people who felt the "official numbers are wrong because Foo Hospital in Bar County reported treating 'x' confirmed cases, but the state's website only shows 'y' for Bar County.

It's likely that the doctor that was quoted in the article fell victim to that misunderstanding.

On a related topic, it would be nice if the ER doctors, nurses, and hospitals were doing a better job of reporting the county-of-residence. Here in Georgia, we have 166 cases where the county is "unknown" (out of 1525) as of noon's report.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A lot of people say China undercounted but according to WHO report China when it was at peak infection had started counting as confirmed cases that showed lung damage using chest scans instead of doing a proper test as they needed a quick turnaround on test results. Which to me doesn't sound like they wanted to hide the number of infected. Over the years I have realised we have western propaganda and Chinese propaganda and the truth dies somewhere in between

</comment><comment><USER14> This feels somewhat sensationalist given the lack of evidence (other than hearsay).

</comment><comment><USER15> And a lot more will, which I find a bit odd given how important it will be for Future planning. I get that it is mostly a waste of time to test a dead person but it seems like they could at least be labeled presumed covid.</comment>


YAMT: yet anoth monad tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://spbhug.folding-maps.org/wiki/MonadsEn St petersberg Haskell users grp<p>(says Moin Moin / python-powered at page bottom) <comment><USER2> After programming for a while in Haskell I can only say I feel a bit crippled when using other languages (sure on the other hand sometimes I feel crippled when using Haskell).

      * The typesystem is the best of both worlds, statically typed but with optional declarations and an interpreter that can tell you the types if you ask it.

      * Very expressive, short easy to read programs that are very composable and easy to refactor.

      * Faster than other interpreted languages except for some or most LISPs.

<comment><USER3> Have you tried OCaml? All of the above points apply to it as well, though it's worth noting that both are frequently compiled. (Several Lisp and Scheme compilers exist, as well.)

I'm not trying to start an argument -- I'm interested in comparisons by people reasonably familiar with both (i.e. people who get the type system). They strike me as having very different communities and priorities, but using most of the same tools to further them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As the author points out, a significant fraction of folks who learn languages with monads end up writing a monad tutorial.

What other language features (any language) trigger such behavior?

What does this behavior tell us about monads and/or such languages?</comment>


Go support for Android (Games) - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N3XyVkAP8nmWjASz8L_OjjnjVKxgeVBjIsTr5qIUcA4/edit

<comment><USER2> How would those games be then ported to other platforms?</comment>


Touch sensitive artificial skin that heals itself at room temperature - <AUTHOR> http://engineering.stanford.edu/news/touch-sensitive-plastic-skin-heals-itself

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok, this is pretty cool stuff for the robotics community. End effectors that don't need replacement as often are key to keeping the cost of running a robot down, these guys have worked out a way to have the skin 'surface' self heal while retaining its touch sensitive properties!</comment>


Show HN: Brain VR Cardboard app - <AUTHOR> http://thyrd.info/brainvr

<comment><USER2> Any chance for a Samsung Gear VR version?

Cardboard is a great ecosystem, but the tracking and latency on Gear VR is just leaps and bounds above what cardboard can do (the GVR unit has its' own low-latency sensors).

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't have the hardware, but the models of the brain structures are in the github repo in Wavefront .obj format in case someone else wants to play with them.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Wishpage.tv – Send a Content Wish - <AUTHOR> https://wishpage.tv/ <comment><AUTHOR> We have a self-promotion section now for videos, if you need a place to show your videos to the world without getting labelled as spam :)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> What do you think are good ways to get users for the website? Would you market it in a different way?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> What do you think, can you see yourself using the website? What functionality would make you use it?</comment>


In Sign of Progress, Fewer Than 1% of New York's Virus Tests Are Positive - just-juan-post https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/06/world/covid-coronavirus.html <comment> just-juan-post Are these lifestyle restrictions worth it for a 1% positive rate?</comment>


Parents using smartphones to entertain bored kids - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/26/smartphones.kids/index.html?hpt=T2 <comment><AUTHOR> "Almost half of the top 100-selling iPhone apps are for preschool or elementary-aged kids"

I have a 15 month old and he loves watching us play colorful games or apps and his attentiveness has amused me, especially because he has no interest in TV.</comment>


Reading OpenBSD source code daily - <AUTHOR> https://blog.tintagel.pl/2017/06/09/openbsd-daily.html <comment><USER2> Completely agree. But the tools don't make this very easy.

Back in college I was working on patches to OpenSSL, Chrome, Firefox, Apache, etc., to add support for TLS-SRP, and it was a huge pain to jump into these massive codebases and try to understand them. I was using Emacs and had all of the various language support modes configured, but go-to-definition and cross- references barely worked. Searching was slow, and if I wanted to discuss a piece of code with my CS lab partners, I couldn't just share a link.

A friend felt the same pain but then went to work at Google for a bit. At Google, they have some pretty amazing code reading/searching tools (see [https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.c...](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/43835.pdf)), and these tools helped Google build a culture of thoroughly reading and reviewing code. The causality is bidirectional, but having good tools certainly played a role in Google's success.

That friend and I ended up building a product, Sourcegraph, initially for ourselves to make code reading easier. We've now built a successful business out of it with the help of an amazing team. Here it is pulling in the OpenBSD sources: [https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/openbsd/src/-/blob/lib/li...](https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/openbsd/src/-/blob/lib/libutil/bcrypt_pbkdf.c?q=bcrypt_pbkdf#L98-98:13). Sourcegraph has advanced features for several languages; see [https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/mholt/caddy/-/blob/caddyh...](https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/mholt/caddy/-/blob/caddyhttp/httpserver/https.go#L22:23$references), for example. If you love to read code (or want to), we hope you'll love our product. Email me if you have any feedback/requests.

<comment><USER3> There's a tool called OpenGrok that pretty much does this except it's free and open source and it works on C code.

Someone has it run on the openbsd code here: [http://bxr.su/OpenBSD/](http://bxr.su/OpenBSD/) and it should produce a much more useful representation of the code, see [http://bxr.su/OpenBSD/lib/libutil/bcrypt_pbkdf.c#98](http://bxr.su/OpenBSD/lib/libutil/bcrypt_pbkdf.c#98)

Mozilla also has one called DXR which is designed for their large, C++ heavy codebases: [https://wiki.mozilla.org/DXR](https://wiki.mozilla.org/DXR)

<comment><USER4> On first impressions, since I have no experience with OpenGrok nor Sourcegraph, they look to serve about the same core need and provide most the same core functionality, but Sourcegraph is about what I would expect from a company providing usability and features on top of what is generally available for free.

That is, Sourcegraph looks to compare to OpenGrok like Github compares to Gitweb. At least from a cursory look.

<comment><USER3> Considering that Sourcegraph doesn't support C or C++ and those are pretty much the only languages I write that have less than perfect IDE crossrefence support I don't really see a point in Sourcegraph at the moment.

<comment><USER4> Didn't one of the sourcegraph founders post a link to OpenBSD in sourcegraph at the top of this thread? That's C. Am I misunderstanding what you're taking about?

<comment><USER5> "C/C++ is supported for text/regexp search and basic browsing (no advanced language features yet)." (message in the Sourcegraph UI)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love this idea in part because it's the very opposite of the way I tend to work, which is to drive very hard to get a surface understanding of a thing in order to make a very targeted change. I learn lots along the way with this approach, but don't often get the deep, wholistic understanding of existing systems that only comes with repeated exposure over a long time.

Some kinds of understanding involve a no shortcuts grind. That sort of a grind is a big commitment though.

<comment><USER7> > but don't often get the deep, wholistic understanding

*holistic

<comment><USER6> How embarrassing. That's what I get for thumb-typing a comment on the bus before I've had my cofveve.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've been using Typing.io as a platform for reading source code (working my way through Gitlab now) and practicing typing with the right fingers. I have a few minor bad habits to correct, and I want to familiarize myself with the codebase, it's a good way to warm up for the day.

</comment><comment><USER9> Great idea. What other code bases are there that lend themselves to this?

Some kind of curated genius.com for source code would be interesting.

<comment><USER10> The Go standard library is very well written and depending on which parts you read you can learn about lots of things like file operations, HTTP, crypto, etc.

It's easy to read it all on the web, the docs are here: [https://golang.org/pkg/](https://golang.org/pkg/) and clicking on a function name shows the source.

<comment><USER11> I totally agree with you. The Go standard library's is fun to read. I end up opening multiple tabs of different packages. Lots of fun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've fallen into doing something similar. I read the mailing lists regularly try to look over the source for something that gets a proposed patch. Because OpenBSD boils down their software to the essentials and tries to make their APIs impossible to misuse I find it pretty easy reading even though I'm not very experienced with C.

</comment><comment><USER13> Here's the latest daily chat transcript, from Jun 9th: The topic was OpenBSD nc(1) and libtls, but it wandered over to pledge(2) and other code fixes from new participants eager to contribute.

[https://junk.tintagel.pl/openbsd-daily- nc.txt](https://junk.tintagel.pl/openbsd-daily-nc.txt)

<comment><USER14> May i suggest maintaining a repo on github with such material? Would be easier to keep up and might bring in some contributions

<comment><USER13> It might be worth reaching out to mulander, he already hosts his blog on github.

[https://github.com/mulander/blog](https://github.com/mulander/blog)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Anyone have a good exemplar React application for this purpose? I'm building small experimental stuff and now I need to level up and see how real applications are being built.

</comment><comment><USER16> I read the emacs lisp source code in site-lisp/ every day. The goal is to understand one file about a week or so. It has made my emacs and lisp knowledge better, and made me aware of several nice emacs features (align- regexp, for example).

</comment><comment><USER17> I wonder where best to start for people who haven't taken an OS class before?

<comment><USER18> The best start would be to read a book about operating systems such as Tanenbaums. Reading the source of an OS has a really really low signal to noise ratio in getting important knowledge about operating systems due to implementation details an OS-specific peculiarities.

<comment><USER19> What about MINIX? Being a teaching operating system, do you think it may contain less nose and thus be more useful as reading material? (I mean, without the book)

<comment><USER20> Linus Torvalds started out studying MINIX. He was a Finnish programmer into working on kernels. He ended up completing one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I started doing this the other day for a JS framework I'm using. Cannot recommend this practice highly enough. You learn so much.

<comment><USER22> That sounds great idea. I thinking about reading the vuejs code. if any tips for reading, can you share it?

<comment><USER21> This Github repo has some very good tips on how to do it: [https://github.com/aredridel/how-to-read- code/blob/master/ho...](https://github.com/aredridel/how-to-read- code/blob/master/how-to-read-code.md)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What I love about the web is that you can just right click and view source. See something cool ? Just click and see how they did it.

<comment><USER24> Soon, you won't be able to if WebAssembly becomes popular.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This is fantastic! I've recently decided to begin reading web browser source code, even though I understand very little of it at the moment.

For now, what's been fun is to load up the same file in both Chromium and Firefox source, and compare the two and how both browsers work.

Chromium source: [https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/third_party/WebKit/Sour...](https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/)

Firefox source: [https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla- central/source/](https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/)

<comment><USER26> Could also be fun to compare to the Servo source: [https://github.com/servo/servo](https://github.com/servo/servo)

<comment><USER27> Servo source is also on DXR, which is a lot nicer than the github source viewer since it understands Rust (and other) languages (using an LLVM compiler plugin): [https://dxr.mozilla.org/servo/source/](https://dxr.mozilla.org/servo/source/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> How about using a static security source code analyzer and going through all findings? The very good ones, the commercial ones, are free to use for open source projects. That would be real benefit to the project I think.

<comment><USER28> It's missing the point entirely, their primary goal is to become better developer and to improve their C knowledge, hence the effort being mostly focused on _reading and understanding_ a fair amount of code, including its context. Fixes and improvements are positive side-effects of the original effort, not goals in and of themselves.

<comment><USER18> If you want to improve your C knowledge there are probably more efficient ways to do it instead of randomly reading OpenBSD sources such as reading more advanced C books or reading source codes of projects which are known for their good code quality (sqlite maybe?).

One of problem of static source code analyzers are false positive. Soon or later you will have to reading code and understand the context. I assume it's better way to improve your C knowledge because you REALLY must understand the code . And besides that the positive effect are more valuable.

<comment><USER28> > more efficient ways to do it instead of _randomly reading OpenBSD sources_ > such as reading source codes of projects which are _known for their good > code quality_

Yes they could be reading the source of projects known for their code quality…

> OpenSSL is not an OpenBSD project and the code quality is markedly different > :-)[…] and yes, OpenSSL is a bit of a code quality difference than the > OpenBSD norm. [nb: these comments were not praising OpenSSL's code quality]

> OpenBSD has proven great at configuration, code quality, and minimalism.

> OpenBSD's incredible code quality quite obviously doesn't apply to the ports > tree (and that's not their fault)

> OpenBSD […] has a slower evolution pace and a more carefully planned > development model which leads to better code quality overall. Its well > deserved reputation of being an ultra secure operating system is the > byproduct of a no compromise attitude valuing simplicity, correctness, and > most importantly proactivity. OpenBSD also deletes code, a lot of code.

> After scouring the lists and other resources I've yet to find an official > reason for OpenBSD dropping LKM support, but would wager it's due to > security or code quality/openness ideals.

> OpenBSD, a project that has a frankly psychotic focus on code quality. […] > some examples of great code quality. OpenBSD is undoubtedly one of the pin- > up projects of the Open Source world, featuring code that is almost > supernaturally clean, consistent and direct.

> SELinux, etc. is not that picky about audits and code quality as OpenBSD is.

> "I think our code quality is higher, just because that's really a big focus > for us," De Raadt says.

such as OpenBSD.

<comment><USER18> Ok. Could you give me the sources of these quotes? Or other reputable sources and papers who claim that the code quality of OpenBSD is high?

<comment><USER29> Code quality is hard to measure, but I think that any competent C programmer that reads the source code for OpenBSD will agree that the quality is above average.

OpenBSD is a fork of NetBSD, another project considered to have above average quality source code. Enough so that Spinellis based his book about code reading on the NetBSD source code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is a smart thing to do! I might do it eventually... not right now though, because of <insert whatever reason you can think of here>, and stuff, you know.</comment>


How NodeJS saved my web application - <AUTHOR> http://rfw.posterous.com/how-nodejs-saved-my-web-application

<comment><USER2> One issue with this approach is that the author is allowing users to start the background work, rather than putting it into a queue like he had been doing with his prior site. If his site gets slammed, this will be a problem, whereas with a queue he could set up his interface to let the user continue browsing the site while his/her work makes its way through the queue.

One nice find from the article is the link to the Flash implementation of websockets: <http://github.com/gimite/web-socket-js>

<comment><USER3> Just curious, but does that implementation use the native websocket if possible, and then falls back on Flash if needed? I am interested in such a framework.

<comment><USER4> Yep, the framework checks if the WebSocket object is defined, and if not, defines a custom WebSocket objects based around flash sockets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why is switching from rb to js to get server side event-driven code better than using a rb library like EventMachine? Or is there another benefit of node.js that I didn't pick up?

<comment><AUTHOR> My only problem in the past about using Ruby for this type of task has been memory usage and stability of long-running processes, but since I started using Ruby Enterprise Edition things are much improved.

Before I switched, I would typically have to log into the server several times a week to restart the Workling processes. I switched to REE a couple of months ago, and I just did a 'ps aux' on my server: the processes have now been running for over a month without a problem.

Also there is something rather appealing about using Javascript on both sides of the server/client divide. It's really very natural feeling.

I agree though, that EventMachine is potentially another option.

<comment><USER6> I've recently become a little nervous about the way that people are leaping for Node.js when there are proved libraries in pretty much every other language that are basically Node.js, _plus_ five to ten years refinement and testing, _plus_ numerous other plugin libraries that have been created, refined, and tested too.

If playing with the latest prettyshiny is your goal, have at it and have fun. But for getting real work done on real sites I have a hard time believing it's the best choice.

(If it seems simpler than the existing tech, that's the usual way of things. New tech like this is always simpler. It will eventually be discovered by the Node.js community that the complications present in EventMachine or Twisted or other competition is in fact not there because the developers are stupid, but because they learned the hard way it's necessary complication, for the most part, if you want the stuff to actually work, and in another couple of years, Node.js will end up being just as complicated and for the exact same reasons. If you don't mind not working in JS, you can skip to the end of this process if you pick up one of the other libraries that are already mature.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I suppose that one of the advantages of NodeJS is that it can learn from the successes/mistakes of the others. Without having 5-10 years of cruft, baggage and backward-compatibility to worry about.

I take your point though. I only know EventMachine a little, and I've never used Twisted. And there's other solutions too. Pick the right tool for the job.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Obligatory big ups to node:

<http://howtonode.org/>

<http://wiki.github.com/ry/node/modules></comment>


MIT's Amazing New App Lets You Program Any Object - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/3054389/mits-amazing-new-app-lets-you-program-any-object?partner=rss <comment><AUTHOR> This feels like a complete game changer if they can actually get smart devices to adopt their tech.</comment>


Ara Güler obituary: a renowned photojournalist - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/30/ara-guler-obituary <comment><USER2> Growing up in İstanbul we tried to emulate him. We bought a second hand Zenit range finder camera [1] and started to roam the streets of İstanbul like him. Later we made an enlarger from a cardboard tube. Needless to say, none of us made it to Magnum. It's just not enough to have a camera to take lasting pictures. Obviously he was a master.

[1] Zenit was a Russian version of legendary Leicas of the last century. You got a great camera but cheaper than a Leica.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_camera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_camera)

[2] His website: [http://www.araguler.com.tr/tr/](http://www.araguler.com.tr/tr/)

[3] Recently opened Ara Güler Museum in İstanbul. [http://www.theguideistanbul.com/ara-guler-museum-turkish- pho...](http://www.theguideistanbul.com/ara-guler-museum-turkish- photojournalist/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Ara Güler is also famous for insisting he's neither an artist, nor a photographer, but a journalist. Translated below:

 _" I don't think photography is art. I'm a journalist, not a photographer. When a bomb explodes, a photographer runs away, but the journalist chases after it and tries to capture the story. That's the difference between a photographer and a journalist and it's how I have worked all my life."_

</comment><comment><USER4> He was renowned for sure, but he got a lot of hate for taking pictures of Erdoğan and generally not standing against him.

In today's political climate you cannot simply be an artist. You are apparently forced to pick allegiances or the public will announce yours for you.

<comment><USER5> All of that hate and criticism was an idiotic logorrhoea fed by absolute ignorance of his art. Like him or not, Erdogan is a major phenomenon in contemporary Turkey, and every single person is affected by him; a photojournalist can't do nothing but study and document this phenomenon. Hating Guler for that is like hating HIV researchers because the virus has caused lots of harm, or historians or sociologists &c for studying Hitler.

<comment><USER6> I agree with this. Even though we hate Erdogan, it's clearly the most important thing happened to Turkey since it's foundation.

Disclaimer: I was raised in Turkey and ran away from Erdogan's regime 5 years ago. Currently living in Boston, MA.</comment></comment></comment>


TI introduces DLP for headlights - <AUTHOR> https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/ti-introduces-dlp-headlights-2018-01/ <comment><USER2> I got a demo of this technology close to about 10 years ago from TI. Their "killer app" in the lab was a pairing of the DLP with their DSPs to track rain while driving and reduce illumination of rain drops such that glare to the driver was substantially reduced. It was in a lab, but it worked surprisingly well.

Another thing that many people don't realize is that TI makes a huge number of automotive parts currently with extremely tight reliability controls in place for customers like Toyota, as well as established supply chains from silicon to road via companies like Temic automotive.

Personally, I hope TI continues to develop DLP into new markets. The tech is really cool, their miniaturized projectors using laser sources for embedding into smartphones is another demo I saw that would be really interesting if it ever hits market.

<comment><USER3> > Another thing that many people don't realize is that TI makes a huge number > of automotive parts currently with extremely tight reliability controls...

Any idea how many of those leverage MEMS tech at the scale and complexity of DLP?

DLP complexity + high vibration platform + operating temperature extremes on both ends of the gamut doesn't strike me as reliable by any stretch of imagination.

<comment><USER2> TI makes some MEMS devices for automotive applications, but I don't know of anything in automotive with the type of complexity involved in a DLP. Their mixed signal integrated controls are pretty nuts but not mechanical.

The reason I'm not to worried about reliability is more or less as follows. The fact that TI makes other automotive parts is important because they know exactly what kind of environment these parts will be subjected to, they know how they will be handled when they are assembled from the chips TI ships into automotive boards, and what corners will be cut when those boards are sold and turned into assemblies which are sold and turned into cars. They have plenty of experience in determining what kind of reliability intervals will be required. TI built their first DLPs back in the 80s. They made their first commercial ones in the mid 90's. They probably never turned a profit on DLP until the mid 2000's which is about when they first demonstrated working prototype DLP headlights. They then spent 10 years refining them before taking them to market. TI isn't Facebook, they don't move fast and break things, they are an old school technology company that moves slow and reliable. If they get a reputation for poor reliability they stand to lose decades of investment and future revenue and they know it.

Another thing a lot of people probably don't know is that every TI part that fails in an automotive application gets returned to TI where a team of engineers meticulously dismantle it until they determine the exact cause of failure. They are legally obligated to do this from contracts with auto manufacturers but the net results for TI has been the development of one of the worlds most sophisticated semi-conductor reverse engineering capabilities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If we can't have adaptive high beams [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI- NVD1who](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who)] in the US we definitely can't have DLP. DOT for headlights in the US is awful. There should be revamped laws for headlights. When the base model has better output with terrible reflector technology than halogen projector you've screwed up the regulations.

[http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/desktopnews/more-than-half- of-...](http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/desktopnews/more-than-half-of-midsize- suv-headlights-tested-rate-marginal-or-poor)

<comment><USER5> When you get your retinas burned out by HID bulb in an oncoming car, thank the DOT. Rating is based on watts delivered to lights, not photons delivered to driver. Law shouldn't even have type checked.

<comment><USER6> About 17 years ago, the NHTSA had a public comment period about glare from headlamps. One response [1] was particularly informative.

[1] [https://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=NHTSA...](https://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=NHTSA-2001-8885-3657&attachmentNumber=1&contentType=pdf)

<comment><USER5> > Automaker philanthropy cannot be relied upon to control headlamp glare.

This is exceedingly well written.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It would be nice if the US would update their headlamp beam pattern standards to be in line with the rest of the world. They allow low beams with insufficient beam width (leading people to use their fog lamps to address the issue), to much glare for oncoming traffic (lack of an asymmetric cutoff), and high beams that are limited to half the hotspot intensity. Also the fact that they require a manual switch between low and high beam prevents the introduction of more advanced vehicle lighting systems that are available in the rest of the world.

</comment><comment><USER7> I had this idea more than a decade ago but for another reason. If you're driving in heavy snow, the headlights light up large flakes near the car and make it hard to see beyond them. If you add another light at a non-visible wavelength and an image sensor whose pixels can be mapped to the DPL light at very high frame rates, you could turn off the visible lighting that illuminates the big bright snow flakes. Suddenly the stuff you want to see in the distance would be more visible. When I first thought of it, resolution seemed OK but frame rate would probably not have been high enough. I recently revisited the idea and it seems entirely possible today.

Snow Lights.

<comment><USER8> That's such a good idea, and it's just the sort of inventive thinking that I really like hearing: the problem is obvious and anybody that knew anything about DLP's should realize that they can very rapidly control the illumination of any pixel, but who would come up with the idea of controlling light like that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> TI's DLP technology, used in 85% of digital cinema displays, utilizes a matrix of tiny articulated mirrors, one for each pixel. Each of these mirrors has two controllable positions (for example +17 degrees and -17 degrees). A separate light source (LED, laser, etc.) shines on the matrix, and the mirrors within the matrix at one of the orientations reflect light at the target. These devices have been used in projection systems since 1997. See [1] and [2].

The advantage in automotive applications is that the light can be bright enough for automotive applications while allowing the illuminated area to be controlled through software. Illumination levels and regions can be modulated in response to the car's speed, steering, location, recognition of oncoming cars, etc. [3]

[1] [http://www.ti.com/dlp-chip/getting-started.html](http://www.ti.com/dlp- chip/getting-started.html)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Light_Processing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Light_Processing)

[3] [http://www.ti.com/dlp- chip/automotive/overview.html](http://www.ti.com/dlp- chip/automotive/overview.html)

</comment><comment><USER8> I noticed on the TI DLP product web page for automotive [1] that heads up displays are another intended use. I've driven my daughter's car and really like color heads up display in her vehicle--It took a few minutes to get used. The ability to see the essential GPS information floating ahead in my field of view was far less distracting than having to look down at the instrument panel to read it.

[1] [http://www.ti.com/dlp- chip/automotive/applications/applicati...](http://www.ti.com/dlp- chip/automotive/applications/applications.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> This sounds expensive and unreliable and will just result in very expensive headlight assemblies that have to be replaced entirely. Also inability to get the parts to fix them a decade down the line.

This is already a problem with some vehicles with relatively simple lamp assemblies.

<comment><USER8> They will certainly be more complex in the sense that software will control the areas in the drivers view to be illuminated, but headlight assemblies that respond to steering position and car pitch angle are already expensive and burdened with electromechanical mechanisms to direct the light. They make a large difference in safety though.

TI DLP will allow this to happen without all of the electromechanical mechanisms. The DLP technology has been around for 20 years.

<comment><USER10> > TI DLP will allow this to happen without all of the electromechanical > mechanisms.

Do we not count a DLP as an electromechanical device?

<comment><USER8> Well, I did hesitate when I was writing that statement, and technically you are right that microscopic mirrors positioned by electrostatic forces are electromechanical. :)

My original point, and what my complete sentence said, is that the this one large solid state chip is able to serve as in advanced automotive lighting functions without all of the (currently used) electromechanical mechanisms. It really is quite different and has unique advantages. Here's a YouTube video that explains the operation of a DLP:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nb8mM3uEIc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nb8mM3uEIc)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> DLPs are sensitive enough for shock and alignment issues when in a projector - how are they planning to do this with a car?!

</comment><comment><USER12> Great, now you can pay for your car to project ads onto the road!

</comment><comment><USER13> I imagine instead of making headlights easier to replace it's going to skyrocket in price and run off of closed source software. Why would this be a good addition for cars?

<comment><USER14> I'm currently in the annoying situation where I need to replace the "Adaptive" LED headlights on my BMW, these units cost ~£3000 which is significantly more than the alternative (bulbs)....

<comment><USER5> > BMW

You signed up for this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> why would you want a specific shape to be projected by your headlights? Having a sharp level of light beam defined, I agree.

Why would you want shape? You want everything to be lit up in front of the vehicle. This would hold true even for autonomous vehicles, where you blast the area in front of you with some wavelength of light.

<comment><USER16> I understand your comment as the details of the usefulness are buried pretty deep. I had to dig down to the 2nd half of sentence #2 to get the answer: "while minimizing the glare to oncoming traffic or reflections from retroreflective traffic signs."

<comment><USER15> >reflections from retroreflective traffic signs.

So you mask out the stop sign in front of you, and that diminishes the visibility of the sign. Or the light masks the stop sign and lowers the intensity of light within that octagon?

Then you have a camera from the perspective of each headlight, then what? You flood the scene with IR light? I guess it could work - It will require a lot of supporting technologies that TI is probably not in the position to develop.

<comment><USER16> > TI is probably not in the position to develop.

Once again, they've buried the details way deep down in this article, nearly impossible to find. In this outlandish case, I had to reach as far down as the 1st half of the second sentence which subtly discloses (emphasis mine):

" __ _Automakers and Tier-1 suppliers_ __can use this new programmable ADB solution to design headlight systems "</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Color Scheme Tool for $25 - <AUTHOR> http://www.appsumo.com/?r=weXl&source=newsyc&date=feb24-2011

<comment><USER2> I'd prefer a little more examples or information before signing up for this.</comment>


Brainfilling Curves: A Fractal Bestiary - <AUTHOR> http://www.brainfillingcurves.com/ <comment><USER2> This site inspired me to make a fractal curve generator in d3.js once:

[http://www.jonaseinarsson.se/fractal- curves/](http://www.jonaseinarsson.se/fractal-curves/)

(Not mobile friendly, sorry)

A good start is [http://www.fractalcurves.com/Root9Square.html](http://www.fractalcurves.com/Root9Square.html)

Try to recreate some things from the fractal bestiary, and see how sensitive the end result is to the generator.. I use pretty much the same notation as he describes here [http://www.fractalcurves.com/Turtle.html](http://www.fractalcurves.com/Turtle.html)

<comment><USER2> This is the start of the free e-book, by the way: [http://www.fractalcurves.com/HorrorVacui.html](http://www.fractalcurves.com/HorrorVacui.html)

<comment><USER3> My favorites are the triangle grid ones, e.g. [http://www.fractalcurves.com/Root7.html](http://www.fractalcurves.com/Root7.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What a lovely image of turtle graphics.

[http://www.brainfillingcurves.com/images/picture.png](http://www.brainfillingcurves.com/images/picture.png)

edit:

[https://turtleacademy.com/view/programs/5874b880f45859ae6a3c...](https://turtleacademy.com/view/programs/5874b880f45859ae6a3c9869/en)

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd love to rewrite all of those pictures in Prcoessing</comment>


Who Will Buy Canonical and SUSE? - <AUTHOR> https://www.patreon.com/posts/who-will-buy-and-31572837 <comment><USER3> Microsoft won't buy Canonical. Folks are making these predictions without a root cause analysis as to what the companies do well. IBM bought Red Hat because IBM bet wrong in the cloud race and is/was way behind. Red Hat consolidated companies beneath them and worked hard to expand their cloud offerings. Right now on OpenShift along the US Gov pays them $100MM a year. Just OpenShift.

Add to this banks, grocery stores, and airlines are moving off mainframes and to the cloud - and choosing OpenShift. IBM was starting to get eaten by Red Hat. Not to mention IBM is on the cusp of a major leadership change, and needs fresh cloud leaders to lead IBM into the next decades.

These are the reasons IBM bought Red Hat. Because IBM has lost its way. Red Hat had the most to offer.

Canonical doesn't have much to offer. Few people are paying for Ubuntu. Yeah yeah it's popular in Docker images, yeah yeah it's a popular desktop distro. But so what? OpenStack is shrinking (SUSE abandoned it for Kubernetes) and Ubuntu has bet their farm on OpenStack. They don't have much in the way of Kubernetes. On OpenStack Red Hat has most of the customers. Canonical has almost nothing to offer in terms of being bought out. They have very few items that produce profit. They made a huge (and flawed) bet on mobile and failed. Ubuntu doesn't have strong leadership and doesn't have strong clients - <USER2> fact I've been a consultant for 5 years now bouncing between companies every few weeks. I have YET to run into a Canonical client.

This is why no one will buy Canonical. SUSE? Well we'll see.

<comment><USER4> Reportedly MS did consider buying Red Hat but backed out because of anti-trust concerns.

> " _Microsoft, which, according to one source, is referenced throughout the > proxy statement as 'Party A,' first expressed interest in Red Hat back in > March. But Microsoft dropped out of the running on October 10, according to > the proxy, 'citing concerns about securing regulatory approvals of a > strategic transaction in the US and Europe.'_"

Google was also considering it

> " _Google, which one source said was 'Party B,' met with Red Hat in the > spring of 2018 to discuss partnerships. As a deal with IBM got closer, > Google continued to move forward with the sale process, but stopped short of > making an offer. Though Google's former Cloud CEO Diane Greene spent a lot > of time with Red Hat ahead of its sale, she struggled to get support from > the company on her large mergers-and-acquisitions aspirations, according to > one source. So on October 20, Google officially declined to submit a > proposal and instead asked if Red Hat would explore a commercial partnership > and a minority equity investment from Google._"

Block javascript if you want to read the article:

[https://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-deal-talks-with- amaz...](https://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-deal-talks-with-amazon- microsoft-google-before-34-billion-ibm-acquisition-2018-12)

<comment><USER3> Yeah I was in RH during this and saw a lot of the internal talks. Red Hat had a reason to be bought.

Canonical... Doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Bad trend for user freedom when the industry keeps acquiring and consolidating and further fattening the already fat giants.

<comment><USER6> It's the same for the internet in general, which has been turned into TV, and whose main purpose is to serve ads.

<comment><USER7> It's worse: it's reality TV.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Stranger things have happened, but [https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1) makes me believe there is ~somewhat~ of a conflict between Canonical and Microsoft.

<comment><USER9> If the acquisition goes through they can just close that as WONTFIX.

<comment><USER10> It might be changed to "IN_PROGRESS" with Microsoft Edge being released for Linux next year :).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I actually made the same gut speculations in common conversation earlier when IBM bought Red Hat (SAP buying SuSE, Microsoft buying Canonical). It was nice to see this post that flushed out the rationale in more detail.

<comment><USER12> There will be several bidders, I expect. IBM would have a reason to buy SuSE as would Microsoft. Nothing grows your market power by buying a competitor - no matter how small or technologically different.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> "Canonical has, historically, had a number of products (and attempted product initiatives) that didn't quite work out (including Ubuntu Phone, Ubuntu for Android, Ubuntu for TV, and several software initiatives)..."

Anyone else reminded of Microsoft when you read that? Windows Phone, Zune, MSN TV, and "several other software initiatives" (Bing, Bob, Clippy, etc)...

<comment><USER13> Not really.

None of Canonical products reached the general consumer market in any significant ways while the Windows Phone and the Zune have good reputation (and have been actually sold to consumers). I hear Bing is doing okay and Clippy is from a different millennium.

Surface, Xbox and azure are doing great.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Anyone but Microsoft please. I can never trust Microsoft for the rest of my life. If that occurs I will use Debian 100%.

On Canonical side, I read somewhere complaining they suck at marketing, they could have done much better otherwise.

<comment><USER15> Never is a strong word

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Canonical is working towards an IPO.... so I will! :)

<comment><USER12> Wow, I wonder how far away that is. I also hope they get enough money to make some strong market share with new products.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Canonical is already moving to a Microsoft-style update model for some of its software. [https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh- for...](https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for-snap- from-store/707)

<comment><USER18> For a desktop on the other hand, this is great.

People are used to having their phone constantly upgrading automatically, which make it hard to explain to non-technical users why they need to `apt upgrade` regularly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> We can see governments in Europe making moves to encourage European vendors to build clouds that are unreachable by US legislation. i think SUSE can come into play here, one way or another. I think EQT will try to position SUSE in this area.

<comment><USER18> OVH?

<comment><USER20> Rimes with crap and gamers and filesharing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I prefer to look at the other side.

Why the focus on acquisition with vague synergy? HANA drives SUSE adoption, but the Linux piece is relatively static compared to the tooling required to scale and manage these big stacks?

I like to think HashiCorp or another software vendor sees the appeal of building their components into a sturdy Linux product like SUSE.

I might have speculated the same about Docker or Ansible, but they have already been similarly absorbed.

Rather than the consolidation in favor of existing and entrenched tech like SAP, it's inspiring to think a new IBM or Microsoft is being built and could benefit from a Telco-grade OS.

<comment><USER22> I may be misunderstanding you, but I find it difficult to believe Hashicorp could put together a big enough set of investors to drop a couple of billion on SUSE. You occasionally see smaller companies buy bigger, more established ones with higher revenues and such, but it's pretty rare.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I pretty much see that happening

I will be gone by then, however in a couple of decades anything substantial based on GPL will be gone, and it will business as usual regarding UNIX wars.

<comment><USER24> You can never leave the industry. Who else will post the daily reminders that AOT compilers exist for Java?

<comment><USER23> Someone else. :)</comment></comment></comment>


US Appeals Court Voids Google Cookie Privacy Settlement That Paid Users Nothing - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-cookies/u-s-appeals-court-voids-google-cookie-privacy-settlement-that-paid-users-nothing-idUSKCN1UW23R <comment><USER2> This article doesn't say what the six organizations were, which is the main contention of settlement (the fact that it was going to them, not what they are). But in case you were curious: AARP, World Privacy Forum, Carnegie Mellon University, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Harvard University and Stanford Law School.

Here is an article about when the Supreme Court kicked the case back to the Appellate court earlier this year, which goes a bit deeper into the legal issues behind it: [https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-area-att-employees- bri...](https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-area-att-employees-bribed- install-phone-unlocking-malware-company-network-authorities-say/)

<comment><USER3> AARP? The American Association of Retired People? _They 're_ a "privacy group"? Did I miss something?

<comment><USER4> They're an everything group. The single most influential vote in the world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _In a 3-0 decision, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia > said it could not tell whether the $5.5 million settlement was fair, > reasonable and adequate, and said a lower court judge should revisit the > case._

That's a love-pat, figuratively coming out of petty cash.

> _had been accused of exploiting loopholes in Apple Inc's Safari and > Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browsers to help advertisers bypass > cookie blockers._

Circumventing/exploiting security measures/vulnerabilities, to gain unauthorized access to a computer system, with intent to secretly violate the privacy of large numbers of people?

> _He also called the awards to the privacy groups "particularly concerning."_

Wouldn't it be better here for a privacy group to drop a dime (to federal authorities), than to take the money?

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure what you mean by "drop a dime" in this context. It usually means calling the cops on someone, referencing a time long ago when making a call from a pay phone cost ten cents.

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drop_a_dime](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drop_a_dime)

<comment><USER7> I think gp is referring to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act which can lead to criminal charges. IANAL, but I don't think this would really apply probably because of Googles EULA.

<comment><USER8> Do you have to option of seeing the Eula before the tracking is done?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Let's hope they do the same for Equifax, which, rounding to the nearest dollar, did the same thing. ($31 million to 143 million victims.)

<comment><USER10> That is not accurate.

$300 million of the settlement was designated to go to individuals who suffered specific harms (identity theft, etc) due to the breach.

And additional 31 million was designated to go to other people who's information was stolen but didn't suffer additional harms due to the theft.

<comment><USER11> It turned out to be around $125 per person for the latter group.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Tl;dr A group that litigated the case got all the settlement money, by design. Supreme Court is telling lower courts to curb stomp this practice.

<comment><USER13> This wasn't a decision by the Supreme Court, so nothing was "curb stomped" here

<comment><USER12> oh that was a separate settlement of the same type, regarding Google, which had reached the Supreme Court, my bad.</comment></comment></comment>


Reducing Indoor Carbon Dioxide - <AUTHOR> https://segment.com/blog/reducing-indoor-carbon-dioxide/ <comment><USER2> They claim to measure CO2 with an Eve device [0], but the Eve device only measures VOCs (CO2 is not a VOC) and is super-vague about what sort of VOCs is measures and how.

[0] [https://www.elgato.com/en/eve/eve- room](https://www.elgato.com/en/eve/eve-room)</comment>


Show HN: See which friends work close by in SF - <AUTHOR> http://therealsfmap.com/

<comment><USER2> This was super fun to make - hope you enjoy :) Literally a couple minutes after we posted it on fb - one of our friends commented that he worked in the building literally right behind us (I see you Minqi :)!

</comment><comment><USER3> You should refresh the friends list every once in a while - my friend just signed up after I did and we can't see one another :(

<comment><USER2> Hmm this is probably because your friend hasn't set their company. Message me - nikilster [at] gmail - happy to help look into it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why don't you integrate Linkedin?

<comment><USER2> Hmm okay good question -

1\. We wanted to keep it simple (1 login vs 2) 2\. We thought that _in general_ people care more about their facebook friends than their linkedin friends (contacts?) so we chose fb instead of linkedin. 3\. LinkedIn also locked down their api so you can't get contacts unless they are also on the app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How do I edit the company afterwards?

<comment><USER2> Ah yeah we didn't add a link for that because we wanted people to put their real companies (and not see them and change it). You can set your company here: therealsfmap.com/company

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why don't you just show all my friends and scrape their location info from FB?

<comment><AUTHOR> That was our first thought as well!! Unfortunately FB no longer allows you to fetch the full friends list - you can only get a list of friends who have also authorized the app.

Re: scraping location info, we thought it'd be best to let people put in their workplace since the information on FB is typically out of date, missing, or difficult to structure. It's worked really well - the list of companies is really clean right now!

Great question :)</comment></comment>